Spin-Orbit Coupling for Photons and Polaritons in Microstructures

V.G. Sala (1, 2) , D. D. Solnyshkov (3) , I. Carusotto (4) , T Jacqmin (1) , A. Lemaître (1) , H Terças (3) , A. Nalitov (3) , Marco Abbarchi (5, 1) , E. Galopin (1) , I Sagnes (1) , J Bloch (1) , G. Malpuech (3) , A. Amo (1)

1 LPN - Laboratoire de photonique et de nanostructures
2 LKB (Jussieu) - Laboratoire Kastler Brossel
3 IP - Institut Pascal
4 INO-CNR BEC
5 LPA - Laboratoire Pierre Aigrain

We use coupled micropillars etched out of a semiconductor microcavity to engineer a spin-orbit Hamiltonian for photons and polaritons in a microstructure. The coupling between the spin and orbital momentum arises from the polarization-dependent confinement and tunneling of photons between adjacent micropillars arranged in the form of a hexagonal photonic molecule. It results in polariton eigenstates with distinct polarization patterns, which are revealed in photoluminescence experiments in the regime of polariton condensation. Thanks to the strong polariton nonlinearities, our system provides a photonic workbench for the quantum simulation of the interplay between interactions and spin-orbit effects, particularly when extended to two-dimensional lattices.

Mots clés: Condensed Matter Physics; Photonics; Semiconductor Physics

Domaines: Physique [physics]

V.G. Sala, D. D. Solnyshkov, I. Carusotto, T Jacqmin, A. Lemaître, et al.. Spin-Orbit Coupling for Photons and Polaritons in Microstructures. Physical Review X, 2015, 5 (1), pp.011034. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevX.5.011034⟩. ⟨hal-01275245⟩